188. Builders' SEO in 2025 With Bassem Ghali

Welcome to another episode of Professional Builder Secrets. In this episode I interview Bassam Gali from Green Lotus Marketing in Canada. Bassam is an award winning digital marketing specialist and his company specializes in helping residential builders grow their online presence through cutting edge SEO strategies. With Google's recent updates to AI Overviews, builders really need to think about how they approach SEO in 2025. So in this episode we dive into what these changes mean for your business and how you can adapt to make sure that you are showing up in searches when your ideal customers are looking for you in Google. So keep listening to find out how to stay ahead of your competition and use AI driven SEO to generate more leads and more opportunities for your company. This episode of Professional Builder Secrets is brought to you by Apparatus Contractor Services. Apparatus provides full scope end to end QuickBooks, Precision Construction accounting and CFO services for residential builders. If you feel like you can't completely trust your weekly and monthly financial reports or you feel like you're flying blind, Apparatus will rebuild and operate your QuickBooks accounting system and give you precision construction accounting capability you can trust. Learn more@apparatusteam.com or or on the APB Rewards Partner directory.

Google used their own AI technology called Gemini to like as they saying, Google will do the Googling for you. So instead of giving you 10 links that you need to go and do the research from, Google will summarize the whole information and give you a brief summary at the very top that will allow you to get the information the fastest you can. The other thing, the huge increase in what we call zero click, I think it's like 40 or 50% of all searches happening on Google right now result in a zero click, meaning that the search does not go anywhere. 90% of us, when we want to find a new product or a new service, what do we do? We Google it. What about the people who have no idea who you are? They're starting from scratch. You don't have like friends in the industry. They're simply going to Google and searching and those are the hot leads. These are the people that are looking right now in the market for exactly what you have to offer. And if you're one of the first one or two nice people they talk to, that's it.

Welcome to Professional Builder Secrets, the podcast for building company owners wanting to grow safely and securely. I'm your host, Will Blunt and today I'm joined by Bassem Gali. Bassem, welcome to the show.

Thanks.

Great to have you. You're based in Canada, you're the founder of Green Lotus Marketing in Canada, but you're actually in Mexico at the moment. Do you want to give a bit of a background on what you're doing there, but also what Green Lotus is and what you do?

I'm running away from the snow and working on some exciting new AI products. Green Lotus is an agency I started in 2012 after a long career in the corporate world. I used to be the head of digital marketing for Canadian Tire, Toronto Star and few other companies. And in 2012 I said if I can do it for the big guys, I can do it for myself. And along the way we done a lot of great work. We won bunch of awards, the two that are very dear to my heart. In 2015 we won Entrepreneur of the Year because we launched Canada's first SEO tools. And in 2020 we won best Digital Marketing Agency in Canada because we launched Green Lotus Smart site.

Great. Well it sounds like a good run sheet and that's a nice elevator pitch. So thanks, thanks for sharing. Today we're talking about, we're getting specific. Obviously Green Lotus offers a range of different marketing services. Like you mentioned, you have the multi brands there. But today we want to talk about SEO. Now SEO is a topic I've always been fascinated by, but it's changing more than ever at the moment with AI and everything that's going on. So do you want to just give a bit of give your perspective on how you see SEO evolving in 2025 and look at it through the lens of residential builders?

Absolutely. SEO is been one of the major driver for any businesses and it's the most sustainable, most effective way a business can be profitable and maintain high value. Because when you get traffic via SEO or search engine optimization, you're not paying Google for that traffic. Google is sending you that traffic because they assume or they see you as the top category or one of the top builders in that search criteria that the person that is searching for any sustainable business should generate anywhere between 40 to 60% of their leads and sales organically without paying for advertising. Because what if one month you don't have money? Like imagine your business is a baby and a baby needs an apple a day. Every day you go to the grocery store, get the apple, buy the apple and then feed it back to the baby. What if you go to the store another day and the apple costs more? And what if your baby is growing and now you need two apples? This is the exact thing with Google Ads and Facebook ads, right? It always going to change and the marketplace will dictate it. But on the other hand, what if we can plant an apple tree in the backyard? And this is why we call SEO organic. It will take some time to grow, but right in time you're going to have one apple a day, two apples a day, and so on and so forth. We say that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but the second best time is.

I love that metaphor. Actually, the more you got into it, the more it played out in terms of how it related to SEO. I think the planting of the tree 20 years ago is very prominent. With everything that's changing at the moment in SEO, what are the main things that you're seeing have changed in the last 612 months?

One of the main things that have been evolving and brewing very fast is the Google AI overviews. So now we know the regular ads and then the organic links and the Google Maps and all of that, all of that stuff got pushed down and now we have a new area on top of Google called Google AI Overviews. Google used their own AI technology called Gemini to like as they saying, Google will do the Googling for you. So instead of giving you 10 links that you need to go and do the research from, Google will summarize the whole information and give you a brief summary at the very top that will allow you to get the information the fastest you can. The other thing, the huge increase in what we call zero click, I think it's like 40 or 50% of all searches happening on Google right now result in a zero click, meaning that the search does not go anywhere. Most of the time people will like update their search or refine it. Sometimes they will actually click on few things. But most of the time people are getting the information they need right on the first page of Google without needing to go to any website. And that is a trend that is keep increasing that a lot of people that I think will be aware of in coming months. There is the regular things that I see businesses and especially home builders lacking over the years has not changed. The same mistakes that was done like 5, 10 years ago still done today. People are using weak websites, weak foundations, websites that are not optimized for Google. People are using the wrong keywords with no intentions in them or like not focusing on some of the features they have right now. There's a huge rise of local hyper SEO, meaning that there is a big need to optimize for your city, for your neighborhood, for your street, all of these things. People are more conversational now when they search on Google. So a lot of people are Missing this boat and think that Google understand like just because my name is like something construction, Google know that I do all of that stuff. They should rank me for all of that stuff. And the matter of fact Google is a machine. Like you need to feed them, you need to play by their rules so they can understand what you have.

Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. I want to go back to the AI overviews portion first and the zero click searches like you mentioned. So I'm assuming that means for builders that maybe used to get people searching on Google and coming to their website that has reduced significantly. Is it actually reduced 40 to 50% to what it used to be or.

It'S been happening like it just increasing more. It used to be 20, 30%. Like if you notice now there is so many new things that you can find on the first page of Google like flight prices, hotel prices, all of this information and little bit by little bit it will apply to the real estate and the new home builders. So right now people can see your reviews, people can see your contact information, people can even now book appointments with you without going to your website. There is a new feature called reserve with Google and it's an automation that will allow people to book consultation or they can come to your showroom without even going to your website. Right from Google search results I guess.

I mean that makes the Google my business profile, if that's still what it's called, that makes that much more important.

Then I would imagine I tell people your Google, your business profile is about 40% of your business. Like if you can like fix that, not just fix it. If you can master and, and dominate. Like your, your Google reviews is like a hundred five star reviews. Pictures, images, you fill all the information, you're updating it, you're posting it, you have FAQs, you're responding to clients. If you can do that, that alone can significantly increase your odds and can increase your leads. Why? Because those three pack or the Google Maps usually overcome and outrank everything else except Google AI overviews. But everything else with Google Maps will outrank all of these other competitors. So if you can get your Google Map to outrank or to rank on the first three, you can already outrank your competitors that have been in the business for 20 years just because you have mastered your Google Maps.

You also mentioned local SEO. Now local SEO for those that don't know, it's basically SEO but in a geographically restricted area which has always been important for builders because a lot of the builders listening today, they work in a certain city and obviously they can only have customers from that city, for example. How is that changing and how do builders need to adapt to still show up in the areas that they need to?

I believe that the numbers are that 40% of all searches happen on Google and that's bazillions are local in intention, meaning they either have a city name, neighborhood, a street, or just the simply the word near me. And I think builders specifically need to double down not just on local, on hybrid local. We do some optimization for some of our clients like Midtown, Toronto, Eglinton and Ness. That street, that neighborhood, that custom feature, it's now it's called hyper local. So if your neighborhood or that area is a fancy area and they have their own like unique name, then that is a keyword that you should optimize for. So right now it's not just local, it's hyper local.

I mean local search in my eyes historically has been a lot about, you know, the Google Maps listing and all of that. But if you're talking about some of those hyperlocal keywords, then that also relates to what's on your website as well, right?

Correct. And there is a huge benefit in doing that because number one is there's not much competitors. Like if you are paying attention to these little neighborhoods or streets or geographic areas or local lingo that the locals are using and you're optimizing for it, you are really five steps ahead because those big companies are not local, they don't know your area. So you will have way better chances to rank for those keywords. And secondly, if you exactly have the product that they're looking for, like accessibility living living or luxury development or whatever, that feature is broken down not just I'm a construction company, no, I do accessibility living or luxury basement development in this neighborhood. If you have a specific product that I'm looking for and you have a page that's specifically dedicated for it, the odds are like they're looking for exactly what you have to offer. They landed on a page that highlights that you do that feature benefits, blah blah, blah. Contact me, call me or book a consultancy. This is a very straightforward way to success.

Is it as simple as having a page on your website? What are some of the other non negotiables for a builder's website to make sure that they like even if they had, you know, that luxury basement design, you know, in Nova Scotia or whatever it was, are they going to rank for that if they've got that page on their website or is there Other components which will contribute to that.

There is more than 250 factors. But like I will share with you, the biggest factor that we always see, always a weak foundation, always a bad website. I'm going to be biased here and I'm going to be talking just about what we do is Green Lotus. Because I've been doing SEO for more than 20 years. We don't have contracts and we guarantee our results and that's why we only accept clients on three platforms and that is it. If you're not on that platform unless you switch or we will not take you because I know it's not going to work right. So the first platform that is very proud Canadian company is Shopify for E Commerce. If you are an E commerce company, that's what you need to do. The second one is WordPress. That is no surprise. It's been a dominant in the market for so long. But WordPress for most of home builders that like is just cutting a chicken with a milsop. Like most WordPress websites don't use more than 2, 3% of what WordPress can do. And now it's a heavy dead weight that not allowing a small business or a local business to optimize. And the third to be more biased here is Green Lotus smart site which is a website that is designed specifically to meet Google highest guidelines and rank on the first page of Google. All of the other websites in my eye are not even good foundation. So just having a web page that is optimized for the right keyword on the wrong foundation will not work.

What is it about those foundations that's important?

It's are they meeting Google guidelines? Right? Speed security. Like for example Green Lotus websites are hosted on Amazon CDN like content delivery network instead of having a regular website that like in Texas or in a different country and it takes so long to load with Amazon CDN your website is hosted on more than 200,000 servers and based on the location of the person viewing your website, the website will load from the closest server. So it loads in half a second. Right. That alone does not just make Google happy, make user extremely happy. When was the last time you waited for a website to load more than three seconds? Yeah, never, right?

You think it's broken or it's a scam. Shifting back to AI overviews but I think more generally just AI. Are you seeing trends in people going less to Google and going to other tools like ChatGPT to find information as well now?

Absolutely. For the first time in history Google has been convicted of monopoly and you can now install ChatGPT and the big players are coming, right? For the longest time, the first search engine was Google. The second search engine was YouTube, which is both Google. Now we have a third option, ChatGPT, and we're seeing a huge migration and plus all of the other AI tools and they're going to increase. And this is the first time I like see Google, like shaking that the rug is actually about to be pulled from under their feet. I don't see, see them losing their market share or anything like that, but I see more big players coming to the market. I love Chat GPT. I use it quite often. We are seeing for us and for our clients, traffic coming from chatgpt phone calls because we can track, we can, we, we have dynamic phone tracking for our clients. So I can actually know what was the source of the call, what was the keyword that was searched for, how long was the call. So we actually see even longer phone calls, more quality phone calls. But in general, SEO leads will always be the highest quality and the highest conversion rate among Facebook ads and Google Ads and all of that stuff. Someone taking the time to scroll down and look at an organic listing will always be a higher quality than all the other sources. So the big theme here, that SEO or Google is not debt, but the meaning of search engine optimization is about to change. So now we're changing from search engine optimization to search everywhere optimization, right? So now you got to think, what works for ChatGPT? How do I rank on ChatGPT? It's still a black box for a lot of us, but from what we've seen, a lot of the things that do work for Google will work for ChatGPT because Google have more authority in that algorithm and how they rank websites. I'm not saying they're using the same method, methodology, but a lot of the things or the best practices that we do to meet Google guidelines will also meet ChatGPT guidelines.

What are some of those best practices? I think you mentioned conversational search earlier or something along that, because, I mean, Google and SEO are very mature. There's a million tools out there where you can do keyword research and find out what people are looking for. And historically that was a relative linear process that you found what people were looking for. Create content on your website and then you have an opportunity potentially, if you have the right foundations, to rank and get traffic back to your website. How is that environment changing? And how do builders optimize their content on their website for both Google and for ChatGPT?

Again, it's a black box like ChatGPT will never come out. Same with Google will never come out and say this is how you do it. So everything that we've learned about Google is From experience and ChatGPT is new. So the experience is not as engraved. But I can assure you some of the most important factors is what we call schema. Schema, Schema, Schema, Schema. All day long I've done an entire 45 minute webinar and presentation at the building show about this. There is basically 16 verticals or 16 chances that you can rank on the first page of Google. And then when I Compare that with ChatGPT is actually the same schemas that they're reading. Right. But I've done a limited amount of research but we're seeing that the same kind of like schema. Okay, let's just go back, let's just talk about what is the scheme. So a schema is basically it will not make a difference on the front end. So let's say I'm putting my company name, address and business hours, right? A website that have a schema, a business schema and the website that does not will look exactly the same. But in the back end in the coding I'm telling Google that Green Lotus Inc. Is my business name. One young street or whatever is my address. My phone number is blah blah blah. The other is a text format. Google will still and Chat GPT will still understand. But I'm giving the information on a silver platter to those identities to Chat GPT and Google and that not not just stop there desktop and reviews, business product descriptions, prices, reviews, events, pictures. There's 16 types of different schemas. Oh and the most important one for builders is FAQs. Have you ever like googled how to install something? And then Google will have a section that people also ask that's an faq. We make our clients rank for that FAQ so easily we have a client home builder and we made them rank for like is it a good time to buy pre construction? Like they're a big builder, right? And there are milking that because not a lot of builders are aware of that schema. And again when a schema appears on the first page of Google again they get pushed up, it gets a border and it gets more highlighted. And more importantly if you do ask that same question on a Google voice they will be reading from that schema. So imagine you go ask to Google voice what is the best home renovator home remodeling in my city and then ABC has so many reviews, blah, blah, blah, they say, blah, blah, blah. And they're reading, you're feeding them from your website. Right. That is the power of schema. You delivering information in the exact format that search engines do understand. And this is why Green Lotus Smart sites gets 5 to 8 times faster ranking, especially for those schemas. I think the most we were able to get a client ranking is 5 times on the first page of Google. Not just one time, five different times with a local listing, organic listing, an image question asked and a knowledge graph. All of these things. If you can take more real estate on the first page of Google or more real estate on ChatGPT results, then you will get the sales and you'll get the leads. You will be getting that phone call.

Yeah, I think for the builders listening out there, without getting drowned in the technical side of SEO, essentially what you're saying, and there is a technical aspect aspect on your website where you need to structure the data in a certain way and the content in a certain way so that it actually talks to the machines which are ranking it on, you know, whether it's ChatGPT or Google. Is that right?

Well said, man. Thank you.

And basically, I mean, I wouldn't recommend trying to do it yourself because, yeah, it just doesn't make sense. You're like, you're a builder. Your expertise is in building homes and delivering a great customer experience. So you're best to work with an SEO expert.

Absolutely. I would agree. Like, I've seen people like, especially WordPress websites will just go sideways. The entire website will be like two halves just because you forgot to close a bracket or forgot like a period or whatever that is. So, yeah, definitely, please work with a specialist, a developer or I'm happy to get on that quick phone call with you and tell you how to best implement it.

Yeah. So how would you. And this is probably diving into a bit more about how someone would work with Green Lotus. But a builder comes to you and they're like, how do I improve my rankings? They've got a website.

Right.

What would be the first step you would take?

So we have our own program which is four steps of success. We're going to walk through them quickly here. So the first step is foundation. You are either on one of those three platforms or I cannot work with you, period. Right. So if you come to me with a WIX website or a webflow or whatever that is, nothing wrong with it. You're just not my client. I guarantee my results. I don't have contracts. So the only way that we will work together if it's a win win. So the two websites that are applicable to the home builder industry is WordPress and Green Lotus. Smart site. So let's say are you on WordPress or on Smart site? That's a good foundation. Now we can start talking. The second thing that we talk about is sales automation. It is so important. Your website is not a flyer, is not a business card that is exactly the same for everyone, right? Your website need to engage, contact me, chat, book a consultation, get a free estimate. Smart site have a very unique feature that is not available in a lot of platforms. Without custom coding. You can do this without any coding knowledge. You can actually customize the website behavior based on user interaction. So if you come for the first time, I can show you a video. If you come for the second time, here's our newsletter. Or he's on offer. If you come from the neighborhood that I'm serving, I'm like hey you are in Toronto or hey, you are in North York. We work there. He's our portfolio, right? And you can customize that per the neighbors. Hey, you're from the U.S. we're like, we delivered there, right? Things like that. If you come after hours, I'm sorry, we're closed for the day, things like that. Your website need to pull people in because there are billion other competitor that their website is exactly looking the same like yours. What is so different? How are you helping your clients to engage? So there is one thing that I can send you all the traffic in the world but if your website is not converting, it's not engaging, that's a waste of money. So that's step number two. So step number one is foundation. Step number two is sales automation. Step number three is search engine optimization. This is the most crucial step and this is again going back to that tree example. Unfortunately you're not going to see results of our work in the first 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, even 6 months. But you will see the traffic move, the ranking moving up. You will see that you are ranked on page number seven. After three months you are on page number two. Nothing still happened or changed to you because you're not on the first page of Google. But you can't get on the first page of Google without going on page 5 and 4 and 3 and 2. So you will see the metrics moving in the right direction. But no real impact happened to a business unless we get 50, 60% of the keywords we target on the first page of Google. And Then we need to measure what is the impact of SEO. So we have something. The dynamic phone tracking we talked about. I can actually tell which phone calls came from where, how long was it, what was the quality of it, and even if you missed that phone call, we send you an alert for it. So that's step number three. So have foundation, sales automation, search engine optimization, and then the last one is the paid media. Right. I don't even talk about Google Ads or Facebook ads before I get the first three steps done. Because if I only do Google Ads for you, Google will increase their sales and their cost per click, which have been happening like constantly. And you will cancel with me and say, oh, it's not working. That is not working. It's the cost. The competition has increased. But your strategy only have one egg in your basket and it's not working. So you cannot just rely on Google Ads and Facebook ads. I do those and I recommend them to people only in high season. I don't want you to sell, spend, marketing budget in 12 months. No, condense them into four months when the spring is coming and you know where the people are doing their projects. That's the only time you spend Google Ads or Facebook ads, I don't want you to spend all year round. So that's why I do not even talk about that part till we get the first three steps done.

I guess with the paid media portion of that, it is one way to offset the the time it takes for SEO to start working. Like you mentioned, 6 months, 12 months. I mean 18 months is probably realistic if you're starting from scratch. So is that one way to offset that?

Yeah, this is what we call the hybrid strategy. It's definitely recommended, but I don't want anyone to break their backs. But if you are comfortable in your budget and you have a healthy one, and a healthy budget does not mean to thousands and thousands of dollars. Like anywhere between 2 to 5,000 is a healthy budget. And you can do all four steps that I talked about today. But I again, I don't want to push someone into paying media buy that they don't have. Right. So it's important that you are comfortable and this is what we do to offset that time. So a hybrid strategy is very useful, especially if we are coming to your high season, which we are. Summer is coming. This is the time when people are planning, getting estimates, interviewing builders, because comes the summer they want the project done and done so they can actually enjoy their new homes. So absolutely. In high season, if our work will come in that Part I will definitely recommend for all our clients to do paid media, because that's the time of the year that makes you 60, 70% of your income.

It'll be music to your ears. The recent research we did with over 2,000 builders across four countries into their operations, marketing, everything like that. One data point that came out of that was the correlation between the investment in marketing and their profitability. And so we looked at the percentage of revenue that builders invested into marketing from 0% to 1% to 2% to 3%. The profitability just went up at each point and then it kind of just regressed a little bit at 4%. So 3% of annual revenue is the sweet spot for what we recommend. Builders should invest into marketing. And that's not just advertising. That includes SEO and websites and banners and all sorts of different things that they're doing. But that is, that is what we found to be the sweet spot. Which, to your point, as much as they shouldn't invest beyond their means, if they want to grow their companies safely and securely, they should be investing in marketing.

Absolutely. Like, the numbers don't lie. Like, 90% of us, when we want to find a new product or a new service, what do we do? We Google it. Like, absolutely word of mouth. Nothing will replace that and nothing will be even more quality than word of mouth. But how many mouth do you have? What about the people who have no idea who you are? They're starting from scratch. You don't have, like, friends in the industry. They're simply going to Google and searching. And those are the hot leads. These are the people that are looking right now in the market for exactly what you have to offer. And if you're one of the first one or two nice people they talk to, that's it. I think I've seen some research that more than 80% of people will end up working with the first one or two people they get to talk to on the phone. And this is the new products that. And the AI that we're working with, greenlords, is actually what happened if you do miss that phone call. So I'm not going to talk too much, but the new Green Lotus products that we're going to come up with to help home builders to not miss that sale and not miss that lead. How can I engage with the lead that I just missed? Immediately, instantly. I can get him to talk to me and book an appointment without even you noticing that the AI is doing that for you?

Yeah, that's another thing we've, we've found over the years of our research is that that speed of response is really important because it's so easy then to go and find someone else to talk to. You mentioned word of mouth marketing as well. And I think search plays a part in that. Even like for example, Bassam, if you recommended me a builder in a certain area, we don't know each other that well. So as much as I would appreciate the recommendation, I would want to do my own research and go and find out whether that builder, I felt they were reputable. The first place I would go is Google. What reviews do they have, what does their website look like? All of those different things. So if that's a poor experience, even the recommendation from someone may not get you a lead.

Yeah, yeah. I think I've seen some case studies that if your overall rating improved by 0.1, that would mean 20 more percent business. Right. Just that sweet spot. Like more than like 60 or 70% of people do look at Google Reviews before doing business with anyone. And again will take us back to Google My Business. This is not a must. This is like an absolute. Like this is like half of your business is being generated by Google My business. Right. Make sure that it's top notch. Pictures, videos, referrals, updates. A lot of people like it actually happened during COVID and that's maybe why a lot of people did not know about that. Google My Business got a complete, complete overhaul of the algorithm of it during COVID period and a lot of people are not aware of that and not taking advantage of it. And it's not too difficult to honestly do it. The only difficult part is the Google review. And again, this is another product that we're working on is the automated Google review request. How do we know that this has been a good experience? How can we text them? How can we engage with them? There are some tools in the market that do right now. Like this is an absolute must. We even offer kudos and incentives for our clients that have good experience with us. We follow up with them. If you go to Green Lotus Google Reviews, we will have more than 175 star reviews. Right. But that again will reflect highly on us. We got some bad reviews in the past, I would not lie about that. But I was able to handle them. I was actually able to make the client happy and make them delete that review. It's not that you are a perfect company, but you are the number of reviews multiplied by the average of review. That's basically the chances you got.

Yeah. If you've only got five Reviews, it can often seem inauthentic as well. So bad reviews aren't necessarily always a bad thing. As long as to your point, you deal with them effectively.

Absolutely. And actually like it will make your profile a little bit more real. The two times that we did get bad reviews, I was able to take them up. I'm like nice to have one bad. We do have one bad review, but it's a spam, it's not a client of ours. But again I pay very close attention to that stuff. This is one of the main things I talk to my clients every single month's meeting. Did you do it? Did you do it? Did you call? Did you contact all of that stuff? And this will again will feed right into the algorithm that Chad, GPT and Alexa and all of these other platforms. Because not just Google, looking at Google reviews like where do you think that chat GBT will get like their repetition like scale from Again Google reviews, they have the the most amount of reviews. All websites, things like that in the States is actually a little bit surprisingly voice search and all of that, that Amazon Echo is the dominant voice search and the dominant device in the American household. How would Amazon Echo like evaluate reviews and see them and where they get them from? So it just opens a big door of repetition management. What is your business doing about it? Are you effectively managing it or just leaving it as a feather in the air?

How can builders utilize AI tools to improve this SEO and their digital marketing efforts in general? That question's a little broad. I guess what I'm really asking is what trends have you seen in ChatGPT generated content and how it impacts search performance?

Okay, that takes me right into the point that I want to make. So a lot of people have abused AI content generation to a degree that actually Google have officially announced and not just announced the March 20, 2024 update with a killer for all of these websites. I got my phone, my LinkedIn was like ringing off the hook. People lost 60, 70 or even their entire ranking were just completely demolished just because they use AI generated content. You can use AI tools to do keyword research, to research the topic, to get ideas. But if you are feeding machines to machines they can understand like a kid, I believe I saw in the news a kid like 16, 17 years old sold the software to Harvard to let them know if the essays were like done by AI machines. If a 16 years old can detect you made this with AI machines, Google can. So Google always now talking about quality. They're always been a big advocate of how to generate quality content. Not just feed machines to machines, but they really like. One of the main reasons that Google is successful is they truly put the user experience right up front and they would not let you feed crap to the users that come and trust their search engine because that's their bread and butter. They will not risk that for spammy content or AI content. So I beg you, do not write your entire website from AI. I know there is now all of these ads on Facebook of website content generators and just put your business name and what do you do? And that tool will just build the entire website in three minutes. I'm like, guess what, how many other builders did they build this website for? Right? How many times is that content or that example or that sentence is being done? And Google have all of that data. It's not a secret, right? So do not outsmart Google. Use AI for the things that will save you time, the research, the keyword, the technical audits. There's so many amazing tools and ways that you can use AI. But please, please, please do not write your entire website.

Yeah, I mean, I've seen examples of content creation with AI that have worked though. So I would push back a little bit in the sense that if you give it the right inputs and you refine and you edit and then there's a human element to that process, I think you can get an outcome from that. But is that not your thoughts either?

I would, I would agree with you. If there is some human control and knowledgeability of what the guidelines are. What do we do when we write content? Even my, my agency, even 100% of humans are writing the content. I still have to check against AI pleasures. So if you're doing it carefully and you're doing it the right way and there is a human aspect of it, but be honest with me, how many people would do that?

Right, yeah, you're talking about someone just like plugging it in and then copy and pasting straight to a website, which is not going to help.

Yeah, totally. Like a lot of people just go to ChatGPT, write me a blog post about whatever, right? And they just copy paste and yeah, they run with it. Right? That is the examples that I'm talking.

What's going to happen next in this space? What do you see happening in the next 12 to 18 months when it comes to search AI and the adaptation for builders in the market?

There will always be search, right? So there will always be demand. That is not going to change. People are looking for your service and that will happen. No matter what the vehicle is this. I don't see Google going anywhere. I don't see YouTube going anywhere. I don't see any of the trends that we are aware of now going anywhere fast. But I see AI and Chad GPT and Deep Seek and all of these amazing features are going to take a better bite at Google Share, right? So the demand, the search will always be there. People will always be searching for what you have to offer. But now was a lot of people are happy that Google is like taking a beating now instead of just optimizing for Google, you'll have to optimize for Deep Sea chatgpt and learn all of this stuff in order for you to win on multiple fronts. So it's good and bad news. The good news is not a monopoly or it's not going to be a monopoly as it used to be. And the bad news that now you're going to be fighting in three, four, five fronts instead of on two fronts. That is one of the things going to happen. And then what I see that is going to happen also is the increase in zero clicks. You will continue to see less traffic coming to your website that is confirmed. And more and more people, and more and more businesses are getting more intelligent on delivering their information or what they need to say without having the clients come to their website. And that's as simple as how people ask Google Homes or, or Amazon Echo or whatever, right? How people just lift up their phone, where is the closest whatever, right? So Google and those devices and chat GPT will say oh, in your area there is so and so and so I'm like done, I got the information. So you will continue seeing less and less traffic coming to your website. So how do you play by their books in order for them to get you on that first space and get to them to deliver your phone number right there so they can click and call you without even going to your website, right? Because do you care they come to your website or not come to your website if they're going to call you anyway, right? That is now the trick. Can I get them to work with me without coming to my website or not? But your website is the reason you're ranking higher. For them to see that information, it's going to get more complicated and unfortunately it's going to be more costly and it's going to be more hard for local and small businesses to adapt. But if you do have a decent budget, a trusted partner or a mentorship like the app and third partners, you can win this battle because we're all equal online. There's no big players. We're all equal. If I can do and deliver a similar quality to what those companies can do, I can take a chip at them and I can take their leads and I can take their traffic if we have the time. I have so many case studies that we outranked like even Amazon for some of our clients products. Right. We can do that. Just consistency, quality and the right investment.

Yeah, I mean it can sound overwhelming for a builder, this whole SEO world, the amount of technical aspects that are involved in it. But I think the way I interpret it, if you bring it back to its core, it's really about understanding how your customers find you, what information they're looking for, whether that's proof points in terms of reviews or questions about how you build or specific, you know, search intent around finding a builder in your area and understanding how your customers behave and how they find you and then just, just satisfying that with the experience they get on your website or through your Google profile. So it sounds complicated, but if you can find the right partner, it's really about just understanding how your customers are finding you.

And it gets harder because SEO is not a regulated industry. Like to hire someone to remodel my house, they have to have certain criteria, insurance, this that registered by the government. Like you can't just say I build homes, right? But anyone can say I do SEO, anyone can say I do web design. And that I think what makes it harder but in the same time leaves a bad taste in people's mouth because they have already worked with someone that claimed that they do all of that and they invested all of this money and they have seen bad results. So you guys are in a really good hand that you are working with an organization that actually purify their partners and how to work and how to do this and have the right steps. Because without that kind of support or mentorship, the market is just so huge. And if you're going to compare just solely on price and buy the cheaper option, guess what, you're not getting the quality you need to be getting.

It's the same in every industry. Like if you choose the cheapest builder, you're going to get the cheapest outcome. And it's the same with marketing agencies or anything you do really.

But it's the guidance like not just the price again, because all of us are like, we don't have qualification. I'm an architect, right? Like 20 years ago I knew nothing about what I'm talking about today. That's the thing like you need to trust to me is something that is beyond Google is not going to come and say Green Lotus is good or this company or good or bad. Like, how can you trust a partner that will deliver you results in six months to a year to even 18 months? That is the hardest part. And it's a big investment. It's a big leap of faith that needs to be taken. And that's why at Greenloads, I'm like, you know what? I don't have contracts. If you don't want to trust me, like, that's fine, Leave. If you are unhappy, if you don't think we're the right agency completely. But I have clients from day one that still stuck with me for more than 10 years with no contracts. It just have to be a very trustworthy partner. You got to check their. Their case studies, you got to check their Google reviews, you got to check their websites, right? Like, is it actually, are they breathing, talking what they're preaching me? Things like that are some things that you have to work with and take a little bit more time out of your day to research that agency or research that partner before you you actually get in touch with. And I highly do not recommend signing any contracts for anything. I'm like, right now in this day and age, there's so many competitors and there's so many other agencies other than Green Lotus and app and like the market is wide open. Why would I sign my life to you if I'm not gonna guarantee anything? It's a big red flag for me when especially in in this industry. And I know companies do it for different reasons, but it's trust, my number one thing. Great.

Well, Bassam, thanks so much for coming on the podcast today. Best place for people to go and check out more about Green Lotus. I know Green Lotus CA is your website and if you're an APB member, you can find Green Lotus Marketing and Green Lotus smart sites on our rewards directory and get a cash rebate from working with Basamini's team. Is that the best place to go?

Yeah, absolutely. There's a link right there on the homepage to schedule a free consultation. It will be with me and I'm more than happy to hear from you. We have some exciting offers and extra offers because we are also new to the app. Please ask your coaches about some of those offerings and I can't wait to meet you guys all. Great.

Well, Bassem, thanks so much for coming on Professional Builder Secrets today.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

Cool. And a big thank you to our listeners wherever you are in the world. If you like the show today, please subscribe to Professional Builder Secrets on your platform of choice. And if you're feeling generous, leave us a review. But until next time, have a great day.